California's Farm-Centered Neighborhoods Boost Food Security

Imagine walking out your front door to pick fresh tomatoes and cucumbers for dinner, grown just steps from your apartment.

That's daily life in two new California communities called agrihoods, where working farms sit at the center of neighborhoods instead of traditional amenities like pools or parks. One recently opened in Santa Clara, another called Fox Point Farms in Encinitas near San Diego.

The concept flips an old idea on its head. Medieval towns were built around central squares with farmland radiating outward. Modern agrihoods put the farm in the middle, surrounded by housing, shops, and community spaces.

"Developers have a hard time offering open space because they would like to build more housing," said Vincent Mudd, a partner at Steinberg Hart, the architectural firm that designed both California projects. "One of the few ways to bridge that gap is to use active open space that actually generates commerce."

The benefits extend beyond fresh produce. Green spaces cool neighborhoods during heat waves, absorb rainwater during floods, and support bees and butterflies. As climate change intensifies weather extremes, these features make cities more resilient.

The Santa Clara development includes townhouses, market rate apartments, affordable housing, a community center, and retail shops. Fox Point Farms adds a farm to table restaurant, event venue, and grocery store, though it focuses more on units for sale.

Water management is key to making agrihoods work long term. The Santa Clara farm captures rainwater in a tower, storing enough to irrigate crops through most of California's dry summers without tapping city water supplies.

Lara Hermanson, who helped design the Santa Clara farm, focuses on high yield crops in the limited space. She grows Persian cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and hot peppers instead of space hogging pumpkins. While the farm can't provide all the calories residents need, it excels at producing nutritious vegetables.

The Ripple Effect

Scale this approach across a city and the impact multiplies fast. One study found Los Angeles could meet a third of its vegetable needs by converting vacant lots into gardens.

"It's incredible what we could do with what we have, and what we could do even more with intentional planning," said Catherine Brinkley, a social scientist studying urban agriculture at the University of California, Davis.

Nearly any city could adapt its zoning to allow agrihoods, Mudd said. The developments preserve jobs, generate sales tax from retail, and provide mixed income housing.

The model works best with careful planning from the start, including deciding what to grow, how to capture water, and who will maintain the farm. Done right, agrihoods offer a blueprint for feeding cities while making them greener and more livable.